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I am an Associate Lecturer in Human Geography with research interests spanning historical, cultural, political, and urban geography. My principal research focus lies in geographies of education where I am committed to developing insight on spaces of non-formal education. More broadly, I am concerned with the local and global politics of education practice, and the intersections of education and empire in Britain and the Caribbean. Other research interests include the political geographies of the revolution and archival research methods.
- More about Dr Fairless Nicholson
My doctorate, completed at the Department of Geography, King’s College London in 2021 was funded by the AHRC London Arts and Humanities Partnership, with fieldwork conducted in the US, UK, and the Caribbean. In 2018, I spent three months as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. I received my previous degrees from University College London in 2015 (MSc Urban Studies) and King’s College London in 2014 (BA Hons Geography). Prior to working at UCL Department of Geography I was Visiting Research Fellow at the UCL Institue of Advanced Studies (2021) and Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Environment, LSE (2021).
- Teaching
I teach on the following modules
Module convener
- Geopolitical Events (GEOG0056)
- Thinking Geographically I (GEOG0151)
- Urban Practices (GEOG0140)
Tutor and Lecturer
- Thinking Geographically I (GEOG0151)
- Thinking Geographically II (GEOG0012)
- Political Geography and Geopolitics (GEOG0025)
- Global Events (GEOG0015)
- The Practice of Geography (GEOG0016)
Supervision
- I supervise MSc dissertation students on the EPS and Urban Studies programmes
- Publications
To view Dr Fairless Nicholson's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:
- Research Interests
Geographies of non-formal education
Forming the basis of my PhD, this research project examines the distinct yet interconnected education spaces of Britain's Black education movement from the late 1960s to the late 1980s including supplementary schools, adult education programmes, and international youth exchanges. My work argues these spaces deserve greater attention in Geographies of Education. I have published this research in Antipode (2023) and have a paper currently under review in Geography Compass.
Political geographies of the Grenada Revolution
This research project analyses the Grenadian Revolution of 1979 – 1983, the Anglophone Caribbean's only socialist revolution. It uncovers the political geographies of revolution, including the revolution's achievements and initiatives and their significance for radical political thought in Britain and the Caribbean. I am also interested in investigating how formal education initiatives were mobilised for national development during the revolution. This current research project consolidates my interest in Historical and Archival research, a topic I have written about in Key Methods in Geography.
Early academic careers
This collaborative research was conducted with three other research fellows at UCL IAS in 2021. It investigated how discourses of exclusion or inclusion shape pathways into research careers for students from non-traditional backgrounds. The project identified what inclusion and exclusion look like; to what extent conditions of inclusion and exclusion are derived from disciplinary, social, or familial hierarchies; and highlighted key stages at which inclusion and exclusion is experienced. Outputs from this project comprised a series of methodological toolkit videos viewable on the IAS website.
- Impact
Film and photography
My research at UCL has been supported by the UCL IAS Call for Event Proposals (2023) and the UCL Research Culture Awards ‘Research Pump Priming’ pathway (2022). In October 2023, with funding awarded by the IAS, I will co-organise a public event at the Black Cultural Archives, Brixton 'Revisiting the Grenada Revolution: Lessons from the Jacqueline Creft collection'. This event will engage academic and non-academic audiences and showcase material from the newly accessioned Jacqueline Creft collection.
In addition to my current academic work, I have contributed to a range of public-facing initiatives as a Digital Image Practitioner. I have produced film and photography media for research and education institutions including an essay film in collaboration with PI Luke Dickens (King’s College London) for the British Academy Summer Showcase project ‘The Fun Palace and the Future City: Youth Work, Utopia and the Re-imagining of London’s East End' (2019). In 2016 I collaborated with PI Helen Limon (independent researcher) and Co-I Jasjit Singh (Leeds University) on the AHRC-funded project ‘(r)agency? Lived Practices of Anger’ (2016) to produce the short documentary ‘Expressing Anger through Art: British Sikh Artists on 1984’. In 2014, my work ‘Hackney WickED time lapse’ was displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum Friday Late event ‘Hackney Wick Takeover’.
Expressing Anger Through Art
YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuHQKwR9y8g
